Drinks giant Diageo has launched a range of flavoured, edible straws to accompany its line ready-to-drink canned serves, as both drinks and hospitality firms look for new ways to advertise their eco-friendly credentials to consumers.

Hong Kong’s Olive Ridley Brewing Co has launched three new beers and pledged part of their profits to a charity foundation dedicated to protecting and preserving the Olive Ridley sea turtle, one of the world’s smallest species of turtle.

J T Davies & Sons, the parent company for pub chain Brakspear, increased its turnover last year to more than £28.3 million, but said some earnings are being squeezed by business rates and “relentless” rises in employment costs.

An archaeological team excavating a 3,500-year-old site in Mesopotamia, which is now modern-day Iraq, has unearthed an ancient drinking vessel that has revealed some of the earliest known chemical evidence of beer.

Independent brewer McMullen & Sons has opened a 9-hole par 3 golf course at Chadwell Springs Family Golf Centre, a site which now also boasts a pub, driving range, 9-hole pitch & putt and footgolf facilities.

Carlsberg has built what it believes to be the world’s first waterfall-powered pub in a forest in Cornwall complete with its own beer pump, offering AirBnB users the chance to book in and stay the night.

The value of whisky traded at auction crossed £16 million in the past six months, according to the 2018 half year report by whisky broker and investment analysts Rare Whisky 101, representing a 46% increase on the previous year.

Exports of British gin have risen by 19% in value in the first half of 2018 to reach a record £279 million, according to new figures from HMRC, and are predicted to reach £600 million by the end of the year.